Food and Wine Events

Please note: this event is now sold out. Call (415) 927-0960 ext. 1 for waitlist inquiries.

In her newest cookbook, Valerie's Home Cooking, sitcom celebrity and Food Network host Valerie Bertinelli shares over 100 recipes for making comfort food that has a modern and fun twist. With their innovative flavor combinations, these recipes transform traditional comforting classics into crave worthy and exciting dishes that are made to be shared with family and friends.

As the current star of her Food Network show, Valerie's Home Cooking, and co-host of the network's Kids Baking Championship, as well as having spent years acting on television, Valerie Bertinelli has made a name for herself in households across America. But to really know Valerie, is to spend time in her kitchen.

Inspired by her family's cooking legacy, Valerie specializes in showing fans how to make dishes their own families will love that are for the heart and soul. As she often says, there's a story behind every recipe and Valerie shares them in this gorgeous cookbook, where home cooks will find more than 100 recipes that are easy to make and innovative--they're just as fresh, vibrant and down to earth as Valerie herself. Many of these classic comforting recipes have an original twist like Bloody Mary Tea Sandwiches, Lobster BLTs, Quick Rotisserie Chicken Gumbo, and S'mores Popcorn. These mouthwatering dishes will become your go-tos, whether you're having breakfast or lunch on your own, friends are joining for last-minute cocktails and small bites, or the whole family is coming together for a hearty dinner and dessert.

Valerie Bertinelli is a television personality, New York Times bestselling author, and passionate home cook. She hosts her own Food Network cooking show called Valerie's Home Cooking, reaching 1.5 million weekly viewers, and co-hosts Kids Baking Championship on the network. Bertinelli is well-known for her starring roles on the shows One Day at a Time and Hot in Cleveland. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA.

As the current star of her Food Network show, Valerie's Home Cooking, and co-host of the network's Kids Baking Championship, as well as having spent years acting on television, Valerie Bertinelli has made a name for herself in households across America. But to really know Valerie, is to spend time in her kitchen.

Two masters of composition - a chef and a perfumer - present a revolutionary new approach to creating delicious food.

Michelin three-star chef Daniel Patterson and celebrated natural perfumer Mandy Aftel are experts at orchestrating ingredients. Yet in a world awash in cooking shows and food blogs, they noticed, home cooks get little guidance in the art of flavor. In this trailblazing guide, they share the secrets to making the most of your ingredients via an indispensable set of tools and principles:

The Four Rules for creating flavor

A Flavor Compass that points the way to transformative combinations

"Locking," "burying," and other aspects of cooking alchemy

The flavor-heightening effects of cooking methods

The Seven Dials that let you fine-tune a dish

With more than eighty recipes that demonstrate each concept and put it into practice, The Art of Flavor is food for the imagination that will help cooks at any level to become flavor virtuosos.

Daniel Patterson founded San Francisco's Michelin three-star Coi and several other Bay Area restaurants; most recently, he cofounded the acclaimed "revolutionary fast food" venture LocoL. His awards include Food & Wine's Best New Chef and a James Beard Award for Best Chef in the West. Patterson is the author of two previous books, and his essays have appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Financial Times, San Francisco Magazine, and Lucky Peach.

Mandy Aftel is an internationally known artisan perfumer and award-winning author, most recently of Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent. She has participated in many exhibitions, panels, and conferences on scent and food, and regularly collaborates with chefs and mixologists. She and her work have been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Elle, on CNN, and in countless blogs. Aftel lives in Berkeley, California.

Event tickets include the meal, wine, tip, tax, and a signed copy of the book.

From Janet Fitch -- the mega-bestselling author of White Oleander and Paint It Black -- comes The Revolution of Marina M., a sweeping historical saga of the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of one young woman.

St. Petersburg, New Year's Eve, 1916. Marina Makarova is a young woman of privilege who aches to break free of the constraints of her genteel life, a life about to be violently upended by the vast forces of history. Swept up on these tides, Marina will join the marches for workers' rights, fall in love with a radical young poet, and betray everything she holds dear, before being betrayed in turn.

As her country goes through almost unimaginable upheaval, Marina's own coming-of-age unfolds, marked by deep passion and devastating loss, and the private heroism of an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times. This is the epic, mesmerizing story of one indomitable woman's journey through some of the most dramatic events of the last century.

Janet Fitch's first novel, White Oleander, a #1 bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection, has been translated into 24 languages and was made into a feature film. Her most recent novel, Paint It Black, hit bestseller lists across the country and has also been made into a film. She lives in Los Angeles.

From the mega-bestselling author of White Oleander and Paint It Black, a sweeping historical saga of the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of one young womanOne of Entertainment Weekly's Most Buzzworthy Books of Fall 2017

David Tanis returns to Left Bank to discuss David Tanis Market Cooking. Tanis describes how to shop for the best ingredients at the market with tips on how to discern the best quality of each, and the ideal recipes. He offers over 200 recipes and 300 color photographs with each chapter organized by ingredients. Tanis worked as a professional chef for over 3 decades including chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, is the author of several highly acclaimed cookbooks and currently writes for the food section in the New York Times.

Join us for an afternoon reception to celebrate the life and legacy of Roland Henin, a Certified Master Chef who was among the first European chefs to cross the Atlantic to bring classic cuisine to the US.

Chef Keller has written the foreword and is the award-winning chef/proprietor at 6 restaurants and 5 bakeries, author of numerous cookbooks and owner of Finesse, The Store.

Certified Master Chef Roland G. Henin has been our nation's top culinary mentor for the past fifty years, training such prestigious chefs as Chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se and Certified Master Chef Ron DeSantis. For the first time, his story is being told--from his own perspective and through the lens of some of America's most prominent chefs.

Special Event for Book Clubs and those interested in Book Clubs. In addition to a buffet brunch with Mimosas, we will be sharing ideas and suggestions for books to consider for your reading and discussions.

Wendy Pearl of Penguin Books and Jenn Ramage of Knopf Books will be on hand to tell us about the best upcoming titles as well as book club favorites coming in paperback. They are often inclined to give out free copies of books they recommend.

Elaine and our Book Passage reading mavens will present their favorite books, both fiction and non-fiction, for your consideration. We want the focus of this gathering to be on well-written books that will also engender spirited group discussions.

Bringing it Home is the long-awaited cookbook from the well-loved judge on Bravo’s popular food show Top Chef. In her book, Gail Simmons shares her best recipes and experiences from her travels and from her Top Chef culinary adventures. She has taken some of the best dishes you’ve seen cooked on TV and presented them in a way for viewers to make at home. These are smart, simple cooking techniques for both family meals and easy entertaining.

From Bloody Mary eggs to Singapore Style Hokkien Noodles to Fish Tacos with Soy Lime Crema, all her recipes are made from accessible ingredients to help make family meals healthy and quick.

Simmons was head critic on Top Chef Duels and host of Top Chef Desserts as well as a frequent guest on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and more.

Event tickets include the meal, wine, tip, tax, and a signed copy of the book.

The grand master of cooking has a new apprentice in the kitchen: his granddaughter.

Jacques Pépin is one of the nation’s most famous cooking teachers, renowned for his knife skills. Ever since she was very young, his granddaughter, Shorey, has loved “helping” him in the kitchen. Now that she is twelve, Jacques gives his charismatic pupil a short course on preparing “food that is plain, but elegant, and more than anything, fun.” In the process, he proves himself as inspiring to her as he is to the country’s greatest chefs. Curly hot dogs, spinach with croutons, sushi salmon cakes, skillet bread and homemade butter, raspberry cake: These recipes will become irresistible new classics for kids. In A Grandfather's Lessons, Jacques also imparts lessons in kitchen etiquette, from how to set a table to how to fold a napkin properly—even how to load a dishwasher. And perhaps the most important lesson of all: that the best meals are the ones shared at home with family.

The winner of sixteen James Beard Awards and author of twenty-nine cookbooks, including Jacques Pépin Heart & Soul in the Kitchen and Essential Pépin, Jacques Pépin has starred in twelve acclaimed PBS cooking series. He was awarded France's highest distinction, the Legion of Honor.

Event tickets include the meal, wine, tip, tax, and a signed copy of the book.

The grand master of cooking has a new apprentice in the kitchen: his granddaughter.

Jacques Pépin is one of the nation’s most famous cooking teachers, renowned for his knife skills. Ever since she was very young, his granddaughter, Shorey, has loved “helping” him in the kitchen. Now that she is twelve, Jacques gives his charismatic pupil a short course on preparing “food that is plain, but elegant, and more than anything, fun.” In the process, he proves himself as inspiring to her as he is to the country’s greatest chefs. Curly hot dogs, spinach with croutons, sushi salmon cakes, skillet bread and homemade butter, raspberry cake: These recipes will become irresistible new classics for kids. In A Grandfather's Lessons, Jacques also imparts lessons in kitchen etiquette, from how to set a table to how to fold a napkin properly—even how to load a dishwasher. And perhaps the most important lesson of all: that the best meals are the ones shared at home with family.

The winner of sixteen James Beard Awards and author of twenty-nine cookbooks, including Jacques Pépin Heart & Soul in the Kitchen and Essential Pépin, Jacques Pépin has starred in twelve acclaimed PBS cooking series. He was awarded France's highest distinction, the Legion of Honor.

Event tickets include the meal, wine, tip, tax, and a signed copy of the book.

Yotam Ottolenghi is widely beloved in the food world for his beautiful, inspirational, and award-winning cookbooks, as well as his London delis and fine dining restaurant. And while he’s known for his savory and vegetarian dishes, he actually started out his cooking career as a pastry chef. Sweet is entirely filled with delicious baked goods, desserts, and confections starring Ottolenghi’s signature flavor profiles and ingredients including fig, rose petal, saffron, orange blossom, star anise, pistachio, almond, cardamom, and cinnamon. A baker’s dream, Sweet features simple treats such as Chocolate, Banana, and Pecan cookies and Rosemary Olive Oil Orange Cake, alongside recipes for showstopping confections such as Cinnamon Pavlova with Praline Cream and Fresh Figs and Flourless Chocolate Layer Cake with Coffee, Walnut, and Rosewater.

Ottolenghi is the author of Plenty and Plenty More, co-author with Ramael Scully of NOPI, and co-author with Sami Tamimi of Ottolenghi and Jerusalem, which was awarded Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and Best International Cookbook by the James Beard Foundation. All five books were New York Times bestsellers. He lives in London, where he owns an eponymous group of restaurants and a high-end restaurant, Nopi.